Paints
by taylorash
Summary: The assignment is to paint something you like, or love." A brief look into the NJBC before they got that title. Possible oneshot.


Disclaimer: Nothing is mine except the plotline.

Summary: NJBC, the younger years. A brief look into life before romance and drama got in the way.

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"The assignment is to paint." Serena pauses, and then squints at the paper in her hands. It's worn and wrinkled, despite the fact that they had each received one less than 6 hours ago. "…something you like. Or love."

She looks up at her companions. Blair is examining her nails, Chuck is adjusting his bowtie (light blue today) and Nate is watching her with slight, but still minimal interest. She sighs.

"Come on guys! This is going to be fun." When neither brunette across from her looks up, she takes the pen sitting next to her and throws it in their direction. It hits Blair square in the head.

The 11-year old peers up at her best friend, glaring. Serena grins back. Her aim is enviable.

"Alright, alright." Nate snatches the paper from Serena before Blair can start complaining. "Paint a picture of something you like, love, or enjoy doing." He squints at the paper, just as Serena had done a moment ago. "Everything else is all faded."

The blonde next to him shrugs. "It was at the bottom of my backpack."

Blair huffs then, adjusting her knees so they assumed a more lady-like position on Nate's bed. "Let's just get this over with, okay? The more time I don't have to spend with _him,_" she glances over at Chuck, who smirks back, "the better."

Serena rolls her eyes before standing up and breaking the circle of her friends. "Alright then." She puts her hands on her hips, and all three look up at her in curiosity.

"We're all going to need to change into something more appropriate," she explains.

"I have some old t-shirts we can wear!" Nate offered. Serena's clap and cry of glee are so distracting that they miss Blair's expression of disgust and Chuck's small laugh.

"As _if_," Blair says, crossing her arms and refusing to remove herself from the bed. Both Serena and Nate pause midway to the door, looking back at her in confusion.

"If you think I'm ever going to wear some ratty old t-shirt, think again." She snorts. Chuck smiles, removing his jacket, leaving him in his dress shirt and bowtie. He looks at the blondes.

"I'll be careful."

Serena tugs on Nate's hand, leading him down the hallway. She reminds him that that is why they love their friends.

He shows her the box of his old clothes; most were ones that Anne decided would find more use in the broom closet then in his dresser drawers. Rifling through the clothing, he takes out two XL Hanes white t-shirts. He holds them up, as if her were trying them on for size. One has a large rip in the side, the other small black dots from when he was bored with a Sharpie. He looks from them to Serena, questioning.

Her brilliant smile is the answer to his unspoken question. They're perfect.

When they appear back in Nate's room with their new uniforms, they ignore the looks of surprise and disgust from Blair and Chuck.

"Nathaniel, I'm not sure whether to be revolted or impressed you put that on," Chuck says, noting the rip and off-white color of the garment.

"S, this is low, even for you." Blair does a once-over of her friend, her eyes going wide in shock. "Oh my god. Is that from a _department store_?" She whispers the last two words, as if her mother was outside the door waiting for her to say something inappropriate and scold her for it.

Nate and Serena give each other a look, and remind one another again with their eyes that this is why they love them.

Once they relocate their circle to the floor, Chuck passes out the paper, Nate the paint, and Blair the paintbrushes. Serena watches them all, trying to perk them up about doing this. _We'll make it fun_, she says.

Once everything is set up to Blair's satisfaction, Serena urges them to get started. No one moves. That is when she realizes she doesn't have the slightest idea what to paint either.

What does she love? Eric, flowers, sunsets…oh! Her idea causes her to squeal. Chuck and Blair look up at her, Chuck two inches away from putting his finger, covered in red paint, on an unsuspecting Blair's blouse.

"Mind sparing our eardrums and using words?" he grumbles, miffed that his plan to get the other brunette riled up was ruined.

"It says to paint something we love, right?" she asks the group.

Nate nods.

"Well then, let's draw each other!"

Serena was not sure what kind of reaction she suspected. However, she bets it was not Blair laughing hard and uncharacteristically, Chuck looking at her like she had gone mad, and Nate trying to hide his smile.

"Sweetie." She turns toward Blair, who is giving her a sympathetic face.

She frowns. She hates Blair's sympathetic face.

"No offense, but there's nothing you can bribe me with that will make me draw _him_," she tells her, again eyeing Chuck with disgust. He returns her stare with another smirk.

Serena wants to yawn, because they are honestly the most exhausting people she has ever met.

"Draw Nate then," she says.

Blair perks up at this statement, giving Nate a look of pure adoration and playing with the ruby ring on her left third finger. Serena remembers that Blair told her Nate had left a note in her locker last week.

"Well, alright," her friend concedes.

Serena instructs Nate to draw her, Chuck to draw Blair, and she'll draw the four of them, together. After a little more prodding, they all agree and get to work.

10 minutes into the project, Blair's squeal of surprise makes her and Nate's heads shoot up. Chuck is trying to contain his laugh, while Blair is switching off from sending him a death glare and wiping off her blouse, a large brown paint mark staining the expensive white silk.

"Chuck Bass, _I hate you_!"

"You love me," he says immediately, not looking up from his paper to see her expression.

Serena glances at Nate, whose eyes are twinkling with amusement.

"B, I told you this is why you should have changed." She gestured toward her shirt. It was so big it could have been a dress, and already was littered with several paint spots in multiple colors. "See? Me and Nate are the smart ones."

Blair's expression makes her be quiet.

Nate offers her some tissues to wipe her eyes, which she grabs without a thank you. Chuck leers as he finishes his drawing, giving Blair choppy bangs that they all know she would never get, and Serena decides she'll always love her friends.

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AN: I'm debating whether or not to continue this with more looks into their lives, both as younger kids and teens. Let me know through a review. Hope you all enjoyed (:


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